Agricultural harvesters, such as agricultural combines, are designed to travel through agricultural fields harvesting crops. Agricultural combines receive crop severed from the ground and convey it to threshing, separating and cleaning devices within the agricultural combine.
In a typical arrangement, the agricultural harvesting head severs the crop from the ground and conveys it to the central region of the harvesting head. It is then conveyed rearward into a central and forwardly opening aperture in the front of the agricultural combine proper.
The cut crop material is carried from the agricultural harvesting head to the agricultural combine through a feederhouse. The feederhouse includes an internal conveyor that draws the material rearward and upward from the harvesting head (close to the ground) to an aperture on the front of the combine which is higher.
Feederhouse conveyors are traditionally constructed of front and rear shafts to which narrow sprockets are fixed. Two endless chain loops are mounted on the sprockets. The chains have links that wrap around all four sides of the sprocket teeth and are coupled together with pivoting connections disposed at the end of each link. Slats are fixed at each end to these chain loops to convey the cut crop material.
There are problems with this arrangement. They are noisy. They are prone to wear due to the metal on metal contact and continuous flexing of the chain loops. Further, cut crop material is prone to wrap around the narrow shafts on which the sprockets are mounted.
What is needed is an improved feederhouse conveyor arrangement. It is an object of this invention to provide such an arrangement, and particularly an improved front conveyor drum.